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Hello Home, It’s Me – I Live Here Sometimes

I always know when I’ve been away from home too much – I want to cook. And I don’t just mean throwing together whatever is not too dicey in the fridge to make something that resembles a meal. I mean getting down and baking and canning and preserving. Usually in the midst of that I also get the urge to write, so I’m simultaneously blogging with a candy thermometer in hand to test jam temperatures, which has been the demise of more than one keyboard.

It’s been a blockbuster summer that outdid itself in the last couple of weeks and went out with a bang! It deserves 2 or 3 blogs just to catch up, gotta get to work on that now that the weather has turned. But didn’t see the upside to sitting inside writing when beach time called. Sigh, not quite resigned yet to saying goodbye . . .

But nesting instinct kicked in big time when I got home tonight, I’ve been cooking, writing and getting caught up. On the food/reading menu:

Hummus with Edamame and Thai Curry Spice – how’s that for multi-cultural. Delicious and dead easy. Threw a bag of pre- cooked chick peas in the food processor with some steamed edameme beans, added tahini, lemon, garlic, olive oil and a smidge of Thai curry paste. Fiery and fantastic.

With appetizer and refreshment in hand, time for some writing, but got distracted reading some of my favourite bloggers. Been out of the loop for a while so I had some catching up to do. The first was Ukelelelove from Little Red Mixtape, because I needed some cookin’ tunes and love ukelele. I once made my daughter go to the Surf Museum in Huntington Beach where we had a ukelele lesson. She loved it (really, she did . . at least she said she did!). Can you believe this shot of some guy on a long board shooting the piers. Amazing!

Next up a quick batch of Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble. One large bag of frozen rhubarb, one small bag of frozen strawberries (thank you summertime markets), sprinkle with flour and sugar and wee dram of lemon juice to spike the flavour. Simple crumble topping of oats, flour, sugar and butter and bake till crisp and yummy. Planning to top with coconut ice cream. Heaven in a bowl.

And yes, I always cook with a glass of wine in hand, it makes me way more creative, not to mention cheerful. Sometimes I substitute an excellent beer, but tonight it was a Spanish Monastrel.

Another favourite blog is A Practical Owl in a Wiccan World. Her most recent post on taking her mom to visit the plantations around her home city of New Orleans, and the memories of Brer Rabbit stories past, perfectly matched my mood.

Appetizer and dessert taken care of, keyboard suitably smeared with sticky substances (that’s a food reference, nothing else y’all) figured I’d better rustle up some dinner to go with the wine and dessert . . .although it wouldn’t be the first time that crucial step got missed. A quick pasta with proscuitto, peas, fresh tomatoes and Parmesan was more than sufficient and, more importantly, could easily be consumed while typing.

In a much happier mood got caught up with Beerbecue, whose hilarious blog on smoking weiners had me laughing all the way through the sausage double entendres. The man has a way with both humour and beer.

A fabulous wander through some of my varied interests – food, wine, New Orleans, Wicca, surfing, ukelele’s, music, environmental consciousness and beer. Little Red Mixtape posted this amazing song from Canadian musician James Hill. It’s been nice to spend some time at home.